By Mark LaChey
As many of you know, I am the chair of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies (LGBT&A) Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party, having been elected in February 2013. As formulated by myself and the Caucus' three vice chairs at that time (Dave Coulter, Jan Stevenson and Garnet Lewis), our purpose is three-fold: to provide Michigan's LGBT&A Community with an enhanced presence and voice in the all aspects of the decision-making process of the Michigan Democratic Party; (2) to increase our community's participation in the electoral and party process at all levels, including the recruitment and election of openly LGBT and allied candidates; and (3) with the ultimate goal of enriching and bettering the lives of LGBT&A Michiganders generally and specifically in terms of full legal equality.
Although we are all well aware of the recent election's outcome, this Caucus and our community have not been without its share of successes during these past two years. First and foremost, there were no less than 11 openly-LGBT candidates who ran for office this year in Michigan (two for Congress, five for the legislature and four for county-level seats). Of those, three were successful including Jeremy Moss and Jon Hoadley who will be sworn in as members of the Michigan House of Representatives in January. We've only had one LGBT legislator (thank you, Chris Kolb) previously who was term-limited in 2006. All of this is unprecedented, but the significance of these hard-fought and won achievements by Moss and Hoadley (and their myriad of LGB&A supporters) should not be lost in the dross of the overall results from Nov. 4.
It is additionally noteworthy that there has never been this number of LGBT Democrats serving in the MDP's governing and policy-making bodies: its State Central Committee (including Michigan's first transgender member), Executive Committee as well as at its informal but highly influential "stakeholders' table." You may well ask "so what?," but so long as Michigan and our nation continue to be dominated by two political parties of which only one puts its pro-equality policies and beliefs front and center, it is of vital importance to have our eyes, ears and voices in those rooms when the prioritization of issues and prospective candidates are discussed. In this regard, I am unaware of a single Democratic candidate for federal, statewide or legislative office running in Michigan this year who was not publicly pro-equality. That simply wasn't the case in 2012 or previously, and this is why our participation was and continues to be vitally important.
Of course, many of the Democratic candidates we supported with our dollars, time and hearts (because they were outspoken champions of our issues) were ultimately unsuccessful in their election efforts and that sucks. Big time. But the financial and time commitment of Michigan's LGBT Community greatly exceeded that of any previous election cycle of which I am aware. We must be proud of that, and those actions by our community have not gone unnoticed and will not go unrewarded.
What's the game plan going forward? From the MDP's standpoint, I can't yet say. With respect to our community, I suggest that it's in our best interest to focus on supporting Hillary or whomever is the Democratic candidate for president and also continue to identify and support openly-LGBT and other pro-equality Democrats running for state house seats (the statewide and senate elections won't occur until 2018). However, there will be numerous opportunities across our state in two years due to the substantial number of current representatives who will then be term-limited. Plus the clock is already ticking on Jon and Jeremy's tenure in the state house, so we must work to build the influence that they have there and to start a continuum of LGBT representation in Lansing. So if you or anyone you know is considering a run for public office, contact me. I am more than happy to discuss this with anyone, and there are many resources available.
A final note: membership in the Michigan Democratic Party is free. And even if you don't identify as a Democrat, you can still join our Caucus and help us to have a political impact going forward. Simply email me at [email protected] and "like" our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheLGBTACaucusoftheMDP.
The 2016 election starts now.
